These are stories of eighteen strong women who daily resist the suffocation of conformity. They are fighters of their circumstances and winners, brave and determined in their refusal to accept conventional limitations and courageous in their acceptance of the consequences. For them every day is a challenge; for their relationships and social expectations conspire to encroach upon their private spaces, erode their dignity and identity. Yet rooted in their cultural milieu, they make their choices, fight for it and succeed. Much of author me era Khanna’s voluntary work is in the field of gender rights, which has perhaps honed her skill to spot the unique story of an empowered woman. Many of these stories are inspired by real life incidents and some by newspaper reports. Covering a wide social spectrum, some of these women break a stereotype with a drastic action. And there are some who without rippling the waters ostensibly carve a space for themselves. Presented in lucid language, with their own twists and turns in events and characters, the stories meander along unbeaten tracks, striking hard at the reader soul.

My job working for a clandestine government agency, AIR, allows me to use my powers without appearing crazy. With my partners, I protect the Lost, mythological creatures from other dimensions, and keep them hidden from the outside world. Throwing myself into work as much as possible keeps me focused, so I don’t have time to dwell on the uncertainty of the past. When a routine call starts with a gun pointed at me, I know it’s going to be a bad day, but at least it’s not my employer trying to kill me. Once the weapons are holstered, we discover a dead gnome. Was it natural causes or execution by an unknown assailant as the gnome's family claim? The case leads us to a string of deaths and a threat that could expose the Lost to the world. Forced to collaborate with teams outside of our agency means I need to keep my abilities in check. The deeper we delve into the investigation, the more my shattered soul becomes a liability, as I absorb the essence of victims and start to lose myself. At times, I’m not sure it’s still me inside my own skin. Why did I choose now to start dating? Based on the evidence, I go undercover to track a killer. It’s risky, especially with a drug addict at my side, but we will put an end to the monster responsible—even if it costs my life.

New York Times Bestseller How women can make it to the top by adopting the new rules of leadership Women hold just 11 percent of the most senior-level leadership positions in U.S. Corporations—a number that hasn't changed in over 30 years. How can women break through? Break Your Own Rules distills the six faulty assumptions (or "rules") most women follow that get in the way—then delivers the correlating new rules that promise to clear that path. For example, the old rule of "Focus on Others" must be replaced by "Take Center Stage," "Hard Work Will Get You There" must yield to "Be Politically Savvy." "Play It Safe" must give way to "Play to Win." "Ask Permission" must be replaced by "Proceed Until Apprehended." Features the results of over 1,700 interviews with executives in Fortune 1000 companies, as well as the authors' new research and ongoing work with over 5,000 professional women Showcases previously-untold stories from high profile women including Ann Moore (CEO, Time Inc.), Susan Ivey (CEO, Reynolds American), Cathy Bessant (Global Executive for Technology and Operations for Bank of America), Lynn Ford (CEO, ING Solutions), and more Reveals what it really takes for any woman to succeed at the highest levels Foreword by Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte This hands-on guide is for women who are ready to transform their assumptions and join the senior ranks of American business.

Prescriptions for imaginative living in today’s noisy and ever-narrowing world Our social conversation has gone awry. We are surrounded by noise and retreating to social media bubbles. As conversations across ideological divides become increasingly difficult, we as a society need to rethink what it means to listen, to think, to create, and to be democratically engaged citizens. Fifteen Paths documents the journey of a disillusioned business professor who came to realize that in order to transcend the noise, we need more imaginative expressions and fewer argumentative ones. David Weitzner sought the counsel of fourteen iconoclastic artists, including Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Lydia Lunch, and Del the Funky Homosapien. The book offers 15 concrete courses of action to reimagine a socially engaged life and an afterword documenting the surprising outcome of the author’s personal journey.

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Do you know the best way to drive your company's growth? If not, it's time to boost your Growth IQ. Trying to find the one right move that will improve your business's performance can feel overwhelming. But, as you'll discover in Growth IQ, there are just ten simple--but easily misunderstood--paths to growth, and every successful growth strategy can be boiled down to picking the right combination and sequence of these paths for your current context. Tiffani Bova travels around the world helping companies solve their most vexing problem: how to keep growing in the face of stiff competition and a fast-changing business environment. Whether she's presenting to a Fortune 500 board of directors or brainstorming over coffee with a startup founder, Bova cuts through the clutter and confusion that surround growth. Now, she draws on her decades of experience and more than thirty fascinating, in-depth business stories to demonstrate the opportunities--and pitfalls--of each of the ten growth paths, how they work together, and how they apply to business today. You'll see how, for instance: * Red Bull broke Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's stranglehold on the soft drink market by taking the Customer Base Penetration path to establish a foothold with adventure sports junkies and expand into the mainstream. * Marvel transformed itself from a struggling comic book publisher into a global entertainment behemoth by using a Customer and Product Diversification strategy and shifting their focus from comic books to comic book characters in movies. * Starbucks suffered a brand crisis when they overwhelmed their customers with a Product Expansion strategy, and brought back CEO Howard Schultz to course-correct by returning to the Customer Experience path. Through Bova's insightful analyses of these and many other case studies, you'll see why it can be a mistake to imitate strategies that worked for your competitors, or rely on strategies that worked for you in the past. To grow your company with confidence, you first need to grow your Growth IQ.

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